Sleepwalker
by Wysty
Summary: [AU, KuroxFay] Kurogane is working as a police man in an utterly calm area. He's life is peaceful at the verge of dull until he one day finds a mysterious stranger hiding next to an uncommonly bloody crime scene... Thriller, Drama, AlmostRomance.
1. Prologue: I wonder

**Fandom:** Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE (AU)

**Pairing/Characters:** KuroganexFay, a number of other CLAMP characters…

**Rating:** M

**Chapters:** Most likely 9 or 10!

**Genre:** Thriller, Drama, Almost-Romance

**Warnings:** Complete AU, angst, blood and "adult themes"

**Disclaimer:** Characters belongs to CLAMP, the song "Sleepwalker" belongs to Nightwish!

**Summary:** Kurogane is working as a police man in an utterly calm area. He's life is peaceful at the verge of dull until he one day finds a mysterious stranger hiding next to an uncommonly bloody crime scene...

_Sleepwalker seducing me  
I dared to enter your ecstacy  
Lay yourself now__ down to sleep  
In my dreams you're mine to keep_

**Nightwish – Sleepwalker**

**Prologue:**

Taking job at the local graveyard had been a mistake, both the girls were aware of that. It was a though job; especially now in the autumn when the whole place was covered by a tick layer of leaves to rake up, carry away and burn behind the assembly hall. And the visitors really didn't make it better, often appearing as ghosts as they walked silent over the grass, bowed and empty eyed as they remembered the person they had lost. Even the kids were still and quite, clutching the hands of their parents, scared by the seriousness of the situation.

It was a rather warn afternoon as Alice finally dropped her rake and whipped the sweat off her forehead.

"It's enough now," she said, "I need a break…"

Emily looked up at her, nervously.

"What about the manager, he will notice if the fire dies out…"

"Oh, come on," Alice snorted, "he's probably dozed off at the staff office again…"

Emily began to answer but stopped to look at something over her friends shoulder. The other girl followed her gaze curiously.

"You have seen him before too, haven't you? He's here at least once a week, always visiting the same grave…"

"Yeah," Emily said quietly, "I have noticed that, do you think it's his wife he visits?"

Alice shuddered.

"He doesn't look very old, forty maybe?"

"She could be dead anyway, in an accident or maybe she fell sick…"

Alice suddenly smiled.

"Come," she said, "let's ask him!"

Her friend gave her a horrified look.

"We can't do that!" she said, "he might get angry…"

Alice sighed.

"Stop being such a coward, Emily, what's the worst thing that can happen? That he complains and gets us fired? Well, I'm fed up with this anyway…"

Still hesitant, Emily put down her rake and followed the other over to the place where the stranger sat bent down, apparently placing something before the gravestone. He might not even be in his forties yet, maybe thirty-eight, tall and athletic and without any grey in his raven black hair. And, she saw as he turned to look at them, he had the strangest ruby-red eyes she had ever seen. A bit taken a back of their intensity, she wondered if even Alice could be unaffected by the way he looked at them, almost adversely, as they approached. But unaffected or not, her friend wasn't someone who backed away very easily as she had made up her mind about something.

"Hello, sir," she said, "my friend and me has been working here for a while and we have seen you here so often that we began to wonder who it was you visited…"

At first the peculiar eyes grew even harder before he suddenly turned them away from them to look straight at the grave as if he tried to ask for advices there from. It was a plain stone without decorations but the flowers in front of it was magnificent and among them someone had placed a whole menagerie of small glass animals in different sizes and colours.

"It's a long story," he said, "a damn long story and a fucki'n sad one too…"

Alice shuddered.

"We're at lunch break," she decided, "sir, please tell us!"

The man sighed and stood.

"I don't see why the hell you would have something to do with it, but fine," he gave the grave a last look, a crooked smile on his lips, "it's probably fucki'n _'destined'_ as well…"


	2. In the darkest place

**Sleepwalker, Chapter 1**

To begin working as a policeman had been quite natural to Kurogane. He was easily bored, liked challenges and wanted a job that required strength and courage. And after getting fired from his dream job, he had got himself a place in the local police force right away. It had been something of a disappointment. While his colleagues were happy to have ended up in such a calm area, the fierce young man almost wished for something to happen, as most exiting thing ever to cross his road seemed to be shoplifting. Therefore he was quite surprised as he one night got a call about a murder in one of the more rundown parts of the district.

The young police woman who called him sounded shaken, but Kurogane simply dismissed this as inexperience, a murder was a murder and for someone who was only used to running after fourteen years old girls with their pocket stuffed with stolen candy, it was probably a shock. The high amount of other policemen as he arrived didn't really surprise him either as they had probably all received a call from the upset girl.

Due to the man who greeted him as he stepped out of his car, it had been two kids who had found the body as they had entered the old magazine without permission;

"Probably to smoke marijuana,_"_ his older colleague stated as he glared towards the other end of the street where two pale teens were being questioned, "the girl had three joints in her pocket…"

Kurogane didn't even care to answer, he had had his share of rebellious teenagers already; after all; they were probably the ones that so though that he had any job at all…

"So," he said, "what else? Cause of death? Murder weapon? Identity paper?"

The other shook his head.

"Go ahead and take a look," he said, "but it's damn bloody in there…"

It was bloody. More bloody than anything else Kurogane had ever seen.

The victim was a man in his thirties, tall and lank, with brown hair and big, green eyes that stared blindly at the ceiling above. He had been rather well dressed, even if that was hard to decide since he was completely covered in quickly coagulating blood.

The cut could have been done with a knife, at least with one of those big hunting knifes, and he had taken it right beneath his ribs. It would seem like he had sooner been bleeding to death than gotten any vital part destroyed at once, but still it didn't look like he had been struggling. He might have been unconscious, Kurogane thought, drunk or drugged, or too shocked to try running away.

"Is this the only floor?" he asked the boy who was doing the photographing.

The monotonous sounds of the camera stopped for a moment as the youngster looked up.

"No," he said, "there's some kind of cellar, the door is over there."

He pointed at the other side of the hall.

"Hey!?" Kurogane shouted to the man who had met him before, "have anyone searched through the cellars?"

The man looked surprised.

"I didn't even see the door," he said, "you sure it's not just a second entrance?"

The photographer sighed.

"I've been here before," he said, "after a drug raid, there's a big damn cellar under here."

"I'll go take a look…" Kurogane said as he began walking towards the door.

"Be careful," the older man said, "you don't know what might be hiding down there!"

Kurogane was about to ask him why he didn't followed him and guarded his back then, but decided that he sooner worked alone than having some one he couldn't trust behind, that old coward would probably screw up as soon as it began to get dangerous anyway…

The door creaked like a horror movie sound effect as it swung open and the light down the stair was dim. The only lamp was on, which was either a good or a bad sign depending on how you saw the situation…

Kurogane went down the stairs slowly, unable to stop the squeaks that followed each step he took. The smell down here was terrible, water sickness and rotten organic materials, and the faintest sweetness of fresh blood. So slight that only someone familiar to it would recognize it.

The cellar didn't look that big at the first glance, but there were a number of doors and storerooms with cage doors and it was in one of those storerooms that Kurogane suddenly saw something that made him halt and draw breath. In the corner of the little space a small figure sat hunched, looking silently at Kurogane with the bluest eyes he had ever seen. He was small, lean and fair and would probably have been very attractive if he wasn't so dirty.

But all Kurogane saw right then were the unmistakable stains of blood at his left chin…


	3. From the start

Three days later the whole office turned around as they heard Kurogane's voice rising from inside of his boss's room.

"That's freaking absurd!" the man shouted, banging his fist on the table, "of course he did it! He was hiding in the fucking cellar with the victim's blood all over his damn face!"

His boss looked back calmly and perfectly confident as she blew out the smoke from her pipe (the non-smoking sign at the door didn't seem to affect her at all), and put it down at the tea tray in front of her.

"For the first, Kurogane, I'm not really sure if two drops counts as 'all over his damn face' and for the second, you know just as well as me that it still wouldn't be enough evidence even if it did. If he_ had_ killed him he would probably have blood not just over his face, right? He would have had it on his clothes, on his hands…"

"He threw the clothes away, and washed his hands…"

Yuuko sighed and leaned back in hair chair, lazily twirling a lock of her hair between her fingers.

"In the state he was in as you bought him in?"

The man had been a mess, both physically and psychically, suffering from dehydration and malnourishment and acting seriously neurotic. Before any questionings could be made he had to be taken to the hospital where at least the bodily condition could be tent to. And even after that it had been difficult to get any rational answers from him. Either he was an idiot or a genius, but he dodged each and every question with swift replies and soft smiles, driving not only Kurogane but almost all the officers crazy.

His identity had been checked and confirmed, but apart from his name and birth date, there were no personal information about him at all; he didn't have any work, or home, or family. He didn't even seem to have been attending any school, ever… It was almost as if he had disappeared straight after his birth and not been involved in the social system at all until now. Fay D. Flowright, born in northern Scandinavia by unknown parents, had by all means been living a life as mysterious as a military confidential file.

Still there were no actual evidences. Even if Kurogane had searched trough the cellars twice he could neither find the murder weapon nor the source of the faint blood smell he'd felt short before finding Fay.

"He might have been less shocked at first," Kurogane muttered, "hell, Yuuko, even you have to say that this guy's clearly suspicious!"

The raven haired woman shrugged and smiled smugly.

"Everyone is clearly suspicious, Kurogane-kun," she said, "for something…"

Kurogane clenched his teeth, this woman was even worse to talk to than that senseless suspect.

"But _he_ is clearly suspicious for committing one of the nastiest murders I have ever seen!"

Already as he saw the smile taking form at his boss's lips, he considered turning and walking away, but since he didn't want to give her the satisfaction in seeing him flee, he didn't.

"So, Ku-ro-ga-ne-kun," she said cheerfully, "since we still have to let him go today, why don't you offer him a room? He doesn't have anywhere to stay and you have a nice, big apartment. Then you can keep him close and see though that he doesn't do anything stupid and if it's like you think and he is the murderer, you will have a much better chance to gain information from him than in a controlled interview."

Kurogane stared at her as if he had never seen her before.

"You want me to keep a psychotic killer in my apartment!?"

Yuuko leaned forward, rested her head on her hand and look up at him with laughter in her eyes.

"My, my, Kurogane are you scared of him?"

He gave her an annoyed glare.

"Of course I'm not! Besides, why should he agree with it, if he killed him, he probably wants to get away from here as quickly as possible…"

Yuuko clasped her hands together delightfully.

"Perfect theory!" she said, "then his respond will be your first hint!

"This has to be against the rules," Kurogane stated, "against every fucki'n rule about police work ever made!"

"We-ell," Yuuko smirked, "I'll look away, just this time!"

Kurogane stormed out of the room, it was really no use trying to talk with that woman when she had gotten an idea on her mind. He almost knocked down her secretary on the way out and gained a glare that almost made him explode again but the decided that the poor boy didn't deserve more when he already had to pass up on that witch.

"Tell her that I'll try," he said instead, "damn if I know why, but I'll try!"

He wasn't sure if Watanuki had heard the discussion trough the wall, which was quite thin, but he didn't ask and Kurogane really didn't want to explain either.

If anyone else had been about to ask they quickly retreated as they saw his grim expression, letting him pick up bag and jacket from his desk before heading for the foyer undisturbed.

It had already been half an hour since the suspect had been released and Kurogane partly, or even more than partly, hoped that he had already left. But as he reached the foyer the first thing he saw was the thin, blond man sitting on a bench, almost as he was waiting for someone, looking lost and pale in the too big clothes one of the younger polices had given him as his own had been pretty torn up. Apparently the man didn't have any money either.

Perfect, Kurogane thought for himself, I have just agreed on taking care of a broke, psychotic and probably dangerous stray cat.

As he approached, two sky blue eyes were turned towards him, unsure and shy, maybe even scared. Maybe he believed that Kurogane should make a last desperate try to treat, or even beat, the truth out of him?

Kurogane twitched a little, how could such a false bastard look so perfectly innocent?

"Hey, you," he began, still trying to figure out what the hell he should say; "you don't have anywhere to go now, do you?"

Fay looked taken aback as he smiled briefly at him, a well practiced smile Kurogane could tell, it made him look like a doll with a painted smile and cold glass eyes.

"I guess not," he said, "why do you ask, Kurogane-san?"

Of course he knew his name by now, Kurogane had been doing most of the questioning after all.

"Well," the black haired man frowned a little, "you can stay by me… if you want to. Until you find somewhere else to go, I mean…"

The doll mask fell of for a short second as Fay looked genuinely surprised and then the annoying smile was back again.

"I really didn't believe you to be that sort of person who lets others, especially not suspicious others, invade on your personal space, Kurogane-san."

Maybe the man wasn't an idiot then, which left genius. And which out of them he had preferred he actually didn't knew.

"Don't pretend that you know me," he said shortly, "and I just don't like the thought of having someone like you running around at the streets, that's all…"

"Of course," Fay said, with only the softest little irony, before he suddenly stood, "let's go then!"

This time it was Kurogane's turn to be taken aback.

"So you accept?"

"Well," Fay looked back at him, intrigued, "as you said yourself, I don't have anywhere to go…"

Still puzzled, Kurogane followed the other out through the door leading to the car park.

"Do you trust me?" he asked, "what if I was going to take the law in my own hands, shoot you as soon as we got out of hearing and dump you in the nearest alley?"

Fay still only smiled at him.

"It might as good as anything else… Do you trust me?"

Kurogane snorted.

"Of course not, not the slightest. I think you're the falsest damn bastard I've ever met and a bloody murderer too…"

The blond raised an eyebrow.

"And you still offer me a place to live? What if I kill you in your sleep?"

Kurogane smiled non-humorous.

"Well, it might be as good as anything else."

"I see," Fay looked himself around, "do you have a car, Kuro-chan?"

Kurogane almost stumbled at his own feet.

"My name," he snarled, "is Kurogane and yes, I do, it's the black Mercedes next to the shed."

"Nice car," Fay decided, his eyes glistering as he peeked back at the other, "I think it suits you…"

Kurogane held back a poisonous reply as he stepped into his car and opened up the door to the passenger seat. Fay looked just as lost inside the big, expensive car as he had done in the police office's lobby.

"We will have to get you some clothes," he remarked as they drove out at the street.

"Ah, Kuro-chan, you don't need to worry about such," Fay looked out at the street where a brief rain just began to fall.

"I don't 'worry'," Kurogane settled, "but you don't have any money at all, do you? And I'm pretty sure my clothes won't suit you very good... I'll have you pay back as soon as you get a job, get it?"

"If you say so," Fay sounded uncertain.

Kurogane glanced over at him.

"Hey… Can you cook?"

The slender man looked up.

"I believe so," he said, "I used to be good at it anyway…"

"Good, then you will cook as long as you stay with me; I'm tired of take outs."

He gained a bright smile in response.

"Of course, Kuro-sama, I'll cook for you as long as you let me stay…"

"Not tonight, though," Kurogane drove up in front of Chinese Take Out restaurant, "it's too late to be picky."

He opened the door and stepped out in the rain, looking back at Fay with the same grim expression as he used to silent his colleagues earlier.

"Stay where you are, I'll be right back!" He said before he shutting the door with a bang, ignoring the bad effect it would have on the car's enamel.

First then, between the car and the restaurant door, with the rain slowly falling down on him, he began to wonder if he had just done the biggest mistake of his life…


	4. Adrift in the dark

The rain increased as they drove the last part of the way to Kurogane's apartment. Had it been a movie scene, the black haired man reflected, he would have called it a cliché. Fay stayed quiet and as he looked over at him, Kurogane could see how tired the thin man was. After all, it had only been a few days since he had been on the verge of starving to death.

The car park lay deserted as they arrived, probably everyone were safe at home by now, well hidden from the disagreeable weather. Fay looked himself around carefully as he stepped out of the car, as if he was either expecting enemies behind each corner or looking for a way to flee. Most likely both, Kurogane thought.

"Hey, can you carry this?" He said and reached the blonde the plastic bag containing their dinner, more because he wanted to wake Fay up from the almost dazed condition he had fell into during the way, then because he actually needed the help.

Fay took the bag and looked down at its' contents.

"It smells nice," he commented, "what is it, Kuro-chan?"

Kurogane glared at the blonde over his shoulder as he took his bag from the trunk.

"I told you not to call me that!" He growled. "It's chicken. You will see once we get in from this damned rain…"

He locked the car and guided his unplanned guest across the park towards the nearest building.

"Whatever you do," he said strictly, "don't you dare make any mess that will get me thrown out of this apartment. I got it from a very special person and she would never forgive me if I was to be evicted."

Fay looked up at him, still looking half mocking but also hiding something else behind it. Curiosity, maybe? Kurogane wasn't sure why this eccentric stranger would be curious about him and he certainly didn't want to know that either.

"Ah," Fay said as he turned his gaze away again, "so you do have friends then, Kuro-tan?"

Kurogane twitched again; this man seemed to be able to get on his nerves with every singe sentence he made.

"That's none of your concern," he stated, "and stop using those stupid names already!"

He entered the code to the front door and let Fay in, ultimately closing down every chance to regret.

"My apartment is on the second floor," he said, "don't get lost in here and don't create any scenes. Apart from me there's a whole bunch of old, rich ladies living here and they are quite easy to upset…"

"I see…" Fay looked himself around, making an odd little whistling sound, "this place is really nice looking, Kuro-chan! I believed that tough policemen like you lived in run-down flats with leaking roofs and shady business all around them…"

Kurogane snorted as they started to walk up the stairs.

"Only in television mysteries of the cheaper sort. But I'd never been able to afford this place if I'd been a cop all my life."

Fay looked at him, genuinely interested, as he locked up the door to the apartment and they stepped in.

"No? So, what did you do before becoming a cop then?"

Kurogane kicked his shoes in under the drawer and threw his jacket on top of it.

"Close the door," he ordered, "and put the food in the kitchen. The guestroom is next at the left. There's some spare clothes stuffed in a box in the wardrobe. They won't fit you, but you will have to use them until we can get you something else."

Fay actually did as he was told, placing the boxes from within the bag at the table while Kurogane fetched plates and cutlery from the shelf.

"It's a long story," Kurogane finally answered, cautiously, as they sat down to eat.

Fay shrugged, studying the first bite for a short second before swallowing it hungrily.

"I won't go anywhere unless you throw me out," he eyed the rest of the food with a somewhat greedy look, "this is delicious! Thank you so much, Kuro-sama…"

Kurogane clenched his teeth, how the hell did he end up here; on the point of telling his life history to an extraordinary weird murderer who just happened to have moved in into his guest room after an idea from his equally weird boss?

"I worked as a bodyguard at first," he said at last, "to a young woman in charge of a big company. She was the one who bought this apartment for me…"

"Really?" Fay twirled a noodle around his fork playfully before eating it with a most satisfied expression, "how'd you end up a policeman then?"

Kurogane glared at him over his own fork.

"Not that it's any of your damn business," he muttered, "but I got fired. I killed some guys and came in trouble with the law. She thinks that I have to learn how to control myself…"

Fay looked slightly surprised.

"But you still got to work for the police?"

It was Kurogane's turn to shrug.

"I have an uncommon kind of boss," he said.

Of course there was more to it than that, but it wasn't like he was going to tell Fay of all persons…

"How about you then?" He said and served himself from a bottle of cheap whine that he had found in the cupboard the other day. Probably he had hidden it sometime when he had expected Yuuko to come over and then forgot about it. That woman was like a swamp, did you have any alcohol at home she would drink every single drop of it before she left. "You never answer any questions about yourself at all, what're you so damn scared of?"

Fay smiled briefly and poured himself some whine as well. He lifted the glass with long, delicate fingers and spun it around some times before tasting it.

"Not that bad," he decided, "hmm…"

He leaned forward a bit, placing his head in his hands.

"It doesn't matter who I am," he said. "You won't have to know, Kuro-chan."

"No?" Kurogane emptied his glass, "for only hours ago it was my fuckin' _job_ to find out about it, and it wasn't like you were more talkative then."

Fay looked up at him, deep blue eyes under blonde bangs, and suddenly Kurogane was stunned by how painfully sad those eyes were. He took the bottle again, determined to break free from the melancholy in the other one's gaze.

"You're not from here," he tried instead; "your file said you were from Scandinavia. Don't you wanna go back there?"

Fay bit his lip, squeezing the glass tighter.

"I can't," he said. "Not before I'm dead I can go back there…"

Kurogane raised an eyebrow; at least that was a piece of seemingly honest information from the blonde.

"Don't you miss it? Your homeland?"

Fay gazed out at the falling rain, still biting his lip.

"Sometimes… At least the mountains and the snow," a smile once more turned up in his face as he turned back to Kurogane again, "you should really go there sometime, Kuro-chan, it's so pretty when it's snowing and everything is coated with white, fluffy snow, like spun sugar."

Kurogane snorted again.

"I don't know if the idea of a country covered in spun sugar is very tempting to me," he remarked, "but I still don't get what keeps you if you would like to go back there. It's up to you to decide about your own damn life, isn't it? To let things stop you only makes you weak."

"Then I'm probably weak," Fay said and yawned, "excuse me, Kuro-sama, but I'm so tired…"

Kurogane stood and shoved the plates down in the sink. There were already several dirty ones laying there waiting to be taken care of.

"Go to bed," he said shortly, "I don't have a spare toothbrush or anything. We'll have to go shopping first thing tomorrow."

Fay blinked at him.

"Don't you have to go to work, Kuro-chan?"

Kurogane glanced back at him.

"Apparently I'm free tomorrow," he said, not willing to inform Fay about the SMS he had gotten from Yuuko while waiting on the food, telling him to take a day of for "private matters" as the cunning police chef had called it, "just remember what I said and behave yourself. If you decide to run away, at least have the decency to do it quietly."

"I will not," Fay smiled, "it would be a shame as Kuro-tan has so much washing-ups he wants me to do for him, wouldn't it?"

Kurogane sighed, dejected.

"Good night then."

"Good night, Kuro-sama."

He lay in his bed, listening, as Fay went to bed in the nearby room. The unfamiliar movement in his apartment felt rather alien. Actually, the guestroom had never been used before, it had been Tomoyo's idea to furnish it and he had never thought that it should ever come to use.

He turned himself around, facing the wall. Life was really getting complicated.


	5. Here we are

Kurogane used to be a fast sleeper, one that slept trough the night without being disturbed by sounds, dreams or problem that needed to be solved. He had always seen himself as a rational person who didn't waste a chance to rest with fruitless ranting. But as the shrill noise of the cell phone's alarm clock awoken him this particular morning, he had to admit that he didn't felt rested at all.

He had somewhat expected to hear the sounds of the door opening and light steps disappearing down the stairs, but it seemed like his guest had been sincere at least when it came to his plans on staying in Kurogane's apartment. Finally he had fell to sleep but his dreams had been haunted by visions of blood and endless corridors where all the rooms were small and dim and in which he could see a thin shape hidden in the corner.

Cursing lightly he turned off the alarm, subconsciously wondering if there wasn't any more pleasant sounds to chose from. At least the sharp, rasping tune ought to have wakened Fay up as well. However, he discovered as he had dressed himself and went out of his bedroom and into the kitchen, that it hadn't been needed.

The room was filled with a most delicious smell of honey and fresh waffles, coffee and toasted bread. It was also irreproachably clean and all the dirty dishes seemed to have moved on from the sink and into the cupboards. Fay looked up from the other side of the room as he entered.

"Good morning, Kuro-sama," he greeted him with a smile, "I made some waffles for breakfast, I didn't find any fresh cream, but I did what I could with what I could find. At least if it didn't look like it would eat _me_ first…"

The old clothes he had found among Kurogane's spares were way too big, stonewashed jeans and black t-shirt which made him look almost sickly skeletal.

"I seldom have the time to go shopping. When did you get up?" Cleaning the kitchen up must have taken it's time.

"Ah," Fay turned his attention back to the waffle iron again, "I have been up since one and a half hour. I didn't sleep very well, even thought the room was very nice…"

Kurogane was rather disturbed by the idea of having the other man walking around in the apartment without waking up; apparently he had been quite tired as he finally fell to sleep. And apparently; Fay was good at moving himself soundlessly.

However, he had to admit that the breakfast was pretty much delicious. At least this unreliable stranger seemed to have been sincere when he said he could cook.

He swallowed his share in an instant, which seemed to amuse Fay, and than he stood abruptly.

"Don't care about the washing right now, we can take care of that later… Just get yourself ready and we will go shopping." His teeth were clenched as if he prepared for the biggest trial of his life.

"Whatever you say, Kuro-sama," Fay looked down on his plate, his features once more those of a porcelain doll, haunted eyes and ethereal smile. It gave Kurogane the creeps, really, something that no horror movie ever had succeeded in.

"Fine, then we'll leave in ten minutes," Kurogane left the room, cursing both himself for being so disabled by the blondes acting, Fay for being such an unusually complicated bastard even for a psychotic murderer and Yuuko for being the sly witch she was.

Cursing or not, twenty minutes later he still found himself parking his car outside the mall with the thin blond on the passenger seat. It was quite early on a regular Thursday morning and the parking space was as good as empty. Fay slid out from the car and took some steps forward as if testing new ground, his caution once more making Kurogane wonder what kind of threat he was under. Criminals were supposed to flee from those who tried to prove their guilt but instead Fay almost seemed to seek protection from him. Whatever it was that the man feared; it was worse than being judged for murder in a country supporting capital punishments.

"It's such a huge place," Fay cut his thoughts off with a voice full of wonder as he looked at the shopping centre.

"You haven't been here before?" Maybe that shouldn't surprise him; after all, nothing seemed to be "normal" or "regular" about Fay.

"No, I haven't been here in this town for long," Fay smiled at him over his shoulder as they went for the entrance, "Kuro-chan will have to show my around…"

Kurogane answered with some sort of neutral reply; it wasn't very likely that more detailed questions about how, when and why Fay had come here should give him any more useful facts. It would only bring the blue eyed man to retire into his shell in an instant.

"There is a shop selling clothes quite cheap on the second floor, I think, and the food store is on the first floor. I don't go here very often either."

"Judging from the content of your fridge…"

Kurogane shrugged.

"I'll trust you with the food purchase then."

"I feel honoured," Fay looked himself around in the almost empty foyer, the shops were only just opening for the day before showing Kurogane one of his best doll smiles, "let's go then, I know Kuro-sama wants to get this over with."

Well, the black haired man though as he followed the other up the escalator, Fay was watching him too, right? A hell of a strange game.

Finding clothes for the lean man was a trying experience. Everything was either too big or too short. He wasn't very tall, but still a grown man and he couldn't weight much more than a fifteen years old kid. Apparently, the days in the cellars weren't the only time Fay had been suffering from starvation. Kurogane suddenly found himself wondering how thin the blonde actually was as he saw the form of his bony shoulders underneath the bright blue cardigan he was currently trying out.

Fay looked back at him with an ironic smirk that was actually much better than the bright doll smile.

"Do you think this one is okay, Kuro-chan, or are you just checking me out?"

Kurogane snorted.

"Like hell I am, don't flatter yourself. But it looks okay, it's probably meant for fourteen years old girls."

"Kuro-sama is being mean, it's not my fault I'm not as muscular as him." Fay gave him a small pile of clothes, "it will be enough then, I'll be back in a moment."

Enough clothes for at least some months, Kurogane thought as he took the pile and started off towards the counter, hoping that would be enough.

It was in the same moment as they stepped out of the shop that Kurogane was halted instantly by a cheerful voice behind him.

"Kurogane-san, Kurogane-san!"

Fay looked curious against the source of the call.

"My, my, to think that you know such cute girls, Kuro-sama…"

"Shut the hell up will you," Kurogane glared at him before turning against the short, dark haired girl approaching them, "good morning, Tomoyo-san."

"So formal," Tomoyo smiled brightly, a pleasant variety after having to see that stupid doll face all morning, "and I must say I didn't expect to meet you here this time of the day, Kurogane-san. Please introduce me to your friend!"

She gave Fay a curious smile.

"He's not really a friend," Kurogane said gruffly, "he's… A part of my job, I guess. His name is Fay."

"Hello, Fay-san, nice to meet you," Tomoyo offered him her hand and Fay answered the greeting happily.

"Pleasure is all mine, Tomoyo-san," he said with a smile so perfect and hastily put on that Kurogane wondered why Tomoyo didn't seem to react at the falseness of it, "it's nice to be introduced to such a beautiful young lady after having spent all morning with this grumpy policeman here."

Tomoyo giggled.

"Oh, I think I can understand that. I was Kurogane's employer some years ago."

"Ah," Fay looked over at him with one eyebrow raised, "I see…"

"It was such a long time since I saw you last, Kurogane-san," Tomoyo said as she turned the attention back to him, "I expect that you at least let me invite you for lunch this time, Fay-san too, of course."

It was absolutely not a good idea to go on a lunch meeting with someone for whom you have been working as a body guard together with a suspected murderer. But he knew since before that persuading Tomoyo about that would be impossible, and therefore, he accepted.

As they met for lunch about half an hour later at the Italian restaurant on second floor, Kurogane was carrying a huge amount of plastic bags with what Fay meant was absolutely needed in a kitchen and which the black haired man had only agreed in buying because he was honestly curious about Fay's cooking skills.

Even if he was quite hungry by now, Kurogane didn't really concentrate on the spaghetti carbonara as they had gotten their food, but on every sentence that left his pale lodger's lips. The man was chatting with Tomoyo in what sounded like a relaxed way, but everything he said regarding himself was shallow and unimportant.

"So," Tomoyo said, putting down her fork for a moment to pick up her glass, "do you work for the police as well, Fay-san?"

"Oh, no," Fay smiled avoiding, "I don't really have a job right now, I guess…"

"Really!" Tomoyo sounded way too enthusiastic in Kurogane's opinion, "would you be interested in one then? You see, my secretary cancelled yesterday and I need a stand-in while I look for a new one…"

Fay looked over at Kurogane with doubt in his ice blue eyes.

"I don't know, Tomoyo-san," he said carefully, "I don't think I would be the right person…"

"Nonsense, I think you would suit perfect," the dark haired girl stated.

Not quite wanting to believe this unfortunate turn of events Kurogane stood.

"Could I have a word with you, Tomoyo-san," he said.

He bought the girl to the more quite corner of the restaurant. The shopping centre had become more active now at lunch time and there wasn't too easy to find a spot where you could talk without being over-heard by at least twenty other people. When they had come as far away from the crowd as possible, Kurogane eyed his former boss with a grim expression.

"You will take that offering back at once, that man is suspected for murder, I won't let you have him in your service."

"Really," Tomoyo glanced over at Fay, "he don't seem like a bad person. If he's suspected, why is he here with you?"

"There weren't evidences enough," Kurogane admitted, "and I didn't want to let go of the case."

"Then it's even more perfect," Tomoyo said definite, "you won't be able to look after him all the time, will you? You still have a work to do. I won't be in any danger at all, not at the office, there are a lot of people around all the time. I can keep him there all days and you can pick him up at your way home."

"It's too dangerous! Tomoyo-san, you didn't see that crime scene!"

"As I said," the girl said haughtily, "there won't be anything to worry about, Kurogane-san. You are not my body guard any longer and therefore you don't have anything to say about the risks I chose to take. If Fay-san agrees with being my secretary, I'll give him they job."

Kurogane could only look as Tomoyo went back to the table, all resoluteness. Evidently his ill-fate knew no bounds this time…


	6. Went looking for clues

**Sleepwalker Part 5:**

"I don't have to go there…" Fay's voice was quiet; the energy he had shown at the mall seemed to have disappeared and left him almost lethargic as he once again sat at the passenger seat in Kurogane's car.

Tomoyo had left them with a happy "Goodbye! See you tomorrow, Fay-san!" and Kurogane had simply refused to speak to him since then. Instead he was staring straight at the road, teeth clenched and the curses still going on in his head like a mantra.

The black haired man snorted.

"Shouldn't think so, she'll probably come to my apartment and drag you out. After all, she bought it, and she probably kept a spare key…"

The blonde made a peculiar little sound of amusement.

"She's a pretty determined young lady, isn't she?"

Kurogane looked away from the road for a moment to glare at him.

"You will go there tomorrow, you will behave and if you do anything, just anything, to hurt Tomoyo, I promise you I'll make you regret it."

Fay chuckled humourlessly, eyes fixed on something in the distance that might be something real or some ghost from the past, Kurogane wasn't going to ask…

"I know you don't have any reasons to trust my word, Kuro-sama, but I won't be a threat to your lady Tomoyo-san."

"You better not," Kurogane still sounded like he was about to kill something, but the last kilometre of the driving felt a little less tensed than the previous two and a half.

As they arrived, Watanuki was waiting on the steps in front of the door, looking utterly displeased.

"How do postmen deliver mails to this place," he spat, "there are no mailboxes outside and the door is locked!"

"It's a private area; the post office has the code to the door," Kurogane eyed the boy with suspiciousness, "what do the witch want?"

Watanuki stood and handed the older man an envelope.

"Yuuko-san told me to give you this, she thought it might interest you," he frowned, "I have no idea what it is, she wouldn't even allow me to look at it."

"Hmm," he took the envelope, "it can be anything between cake recipes to poison spiders if I know that woman right, thanks."

"Whatever, I'm off…" The youngster disappeared down the road. The police office was on the other side of the town but Kurogane assumed that he was rather used being sent away to most parts of the place by now.

Fay waited quiet behind, his expression difficult to interpret, but it was clear that the envelope made him uneasy. Hell, that wasn't so weird, after all. If the guy had as many skeletons in the wardrobe as Kurogane suspected, it would be more than possible for the sly police chief to ferret some of them out. He tucked it under his arm, opened the door and lifted up the carrier bags from the store again, even if he didn't want to let it show, he was eager to see what was inside the first coffin…

Ten minutes later he sat in the apartment's combined work and living room with the papers from the envelope in front of him. He had offered to help Fay cleaning up after the breakfast but the lean man had simply smiled and told him that he didn't mind doing it by himself 'especially not now when Kuro-chan had been nice enough to buy all those new clothes for him and besides Kuro-sama's boss had sent him important papers to read, hadn't she?'. Absentminded, he fumbled for a whiskey bottle hidden in the bookshelf beside the sofa; it was put behind the car's manual and a book about political history that his grandma had once given him, the only two books he was sure that Yuuko would never be interested in. Not caring to go get a glass, he opened it and took a full swallow of the bittersweet fluid, a pretty cheap, Canadian brand that tasted a bit like decayed wood.

"_Hello Kurogane-kun_." Already the first line made him grimace, did the damn woman really have to use that particle inletters even?

"_I have done a little research and found this report; I think it might interest you. I hope you're aware of the fact that I have now done your job for you and that I'll expect a favour done in return later." _There was a little doodle of a butterfly with spread wings in the left corner of the note.

Annoyed, Kurogane crumpled the paper and threw it at the floor, that woman was a demon, nothing less than that. He had never asked for her help in the first place so why the hell did he now _owe_ her?! But he was still curious about the report she had found important enough to send Watanuki over with. Evil or not, the witch was also undoubtedly intelligent. And there seemed to be very little information confidential enough for her _not_ to find. If he ever asked where and how she got hold of it she would only smile slyly and say something like "If you're a really good boy I might consider telling you…" and Kurogane would just course and shut the door as hard as he could behind him as he left the room in frustration.

He took another sip from the bottle and began to read. The report was written by a Norwegian police woman, starting twenty nine years ago and judging by the length of it, the girl had been very interested in the case.

Exactly twenty nine years, two month and three days ago, a new born child had disappeared from a hospital in Oslo. The father was unknown and the mother died one week later in a car crash (her death had been labelled as "suicide"). The child was, as Yuuko had commented in the marginal, born two days before the date when Fay's name had been registered.

The Norwegian police, Miss Andersen, who seemed settled to solve the case, had looked up all boy children born in the same area one week after the newborn's disappearance. Fay was among those children and for some reason he had caught Andersen's interest, because she had written much more about him then she had about any of the other boys.

He was born in a small village by the coast and just like the first child, he was born by a young girl who claimed not to know who the father was. Some weeks later he had been adopted by a couple in which the man was head for a nonconformist churchand the woman was a parish matron. Two years after the adoption, Yuuko's messy writing informed him, the family had moved from the village and no one knew where they had gone. As it was time for Fay to start elementary school, the Norwegian authority had had to assume that they had left the country, taking the boy with them, but no emigration had ever been registered.

"_Interesting wasn't it, Kurogane-kun? I hope you have enjoyed your day of and that you and Fay fit with each other. I expect to see you by your desk tomorrow, since Tomoyo-chan should have been able to catch you and help you deal with Fay."_

Kurogane almost choked on the last mouthful of whiskey. He should have known that the witch was behind it all. Bloody hell, he had to find a way to make her stop manage his life like a freaking marionette theatre. He cursed for himself and put the now half emptied bottle back behind the books as he suddenly felt like being watched.

Fay stood in the door, watching him with uncertain eyes and a sad looking smile. Kurogane supposed that he was wondering if the papers had let know something bad enough to convince the other to throw him back at the street, in jail or just take the easy road and kill him off right now and there. Surprised, the black haired man suddenly realized that the reading had probably had the opposite effect on him because when he now looked upon the thin blonde and his haunted blue eyes he no longer saw a cold hearted killer but a lost child. Of course that didn't meant that he trusted the man but maybe he wasn't really what Kurogane had accused him of being either. Yuuko's intuition was seldom wrong…

Maybe it would appear that "cold hearted killer" had been to prefer, though, Kurogane sighed inside. It wasn't a good idea to get soft on someone you might have to send to execution the next day. _It's already too late for that_, a voice abruptly spoke up inside his mind, _you would sooner kill him by your own hands, regardless of what it would cost you. You made that decision as you let him inside your apartment, didn't you?_

He put down the papers in the drawer on the other side of the sofa and looked up at Fay with an eyebrow raised.

"If it's the dinner that smells like that," he said, "I might actually consider reducing your upcoming rent… If Tomoyo don't pay you higher salaries than I have, that is…"

Surprise flashed trough Fay's features before they arranged back into the same smile again, eyes looking somewhat relieved.

"Well, it seems like I remember some of my old cooking skills after all," he said softly, "I hope that Kuro-chan will enjoy escaping from bachelor life for a while…"

"_I won't be able to save you another time,"_ Yuuko had warned him some years ago, _"if you ever decide to kill again, it better be worth it because the court won't hesitate to judge for the previous times as well. There are things that you have to do, and things that doesn't matter, remember that!"_

There was an alternative, if he only could see a single possibility of Fay being innocent to at least this last murder. But then, who was he to judge?

A tiny smirk, filled with irony, played on his lips as he followed the blonde to the kitchen. A police man who's dirty past was hidden by his witch-like boss and a murder suspect who had been kidnapped as baby and raised in some yet unknown sect; it was all like the worst kind of cheap TV-thriller.

The question of importance right now was if he could manage find out about all this before who ever it was that Fay fled from found there way there. The man might be an unusually manipulative and false bastard but right now Kurogane felt like he was ready to solve the puzzle started by the Norwegian police already twenty nine years before…


	7. My reflection

Apparently he was still not used to having a lodger in his home, because Kurogane felt even less rested as he woke up on this the second morning of Fay's stay. He could already feel the promise of a headache, which was probably going to break out just in time for lunch, lying in wait just above his right temple. Fay was awake before him again, judging by the barely audible rattling coming from the kitchen, and somehow it felt like something that almost resembled a routine was taking form. A routine that probably would require him to wake up at least half an hour earlier if he was going to drop Fay off at Tomoyo's office, he soon decided as he looked at the clock.

Cursing he got into his clothes, out to the kitchen and managed to cut Fay's good morning greeting off by telling him that he, Kurogane, expected him, Fay, to be ready to leave the apartment within fifteen minutes, or he would have to find the way by himself. In the end it took a little more than twenty, which was the black haired man's own fault. It wasn't like someone used to make breakfast for him, and Fay's cooking was actually really good.

And since it was her fault to begin with, he stated as he took his jacket from the hanger and hurried down the stairs with Fay close on his heels, the witch would have to accept him being a bit late today. She would probably make deductions for it from his wages any way.

He could tell that Fay was tensed; probably he still waited for Kurogane to change his mind and decide to keep him away from Tomoyo. But even if that still was his actual wish, Kurogane could understand that he had once again been putted out of play by the two sly women, and he kept on asking himself why. It was Yuuko who was the actual culprit, he was sure about that, and Tomoyo was more than happy to do the witch a favour as long as it could annoy her former body guard. What kind of reasons Yuuko had was a mystery and if he knew her right, she would prefer to keep it like that.

"I have no idea about how long Tomoyo is expecting you to run her errand," he said, glancing over at Fay, as they stopped by a traffic light, "but my work ends at 5pm, I'll come to pick you up then."

The thin man flinched as if he had managed to forget that he wasn't alone in the car but he recovered quickly so that he could once more serve him one of his plastic smiles.

"I'm sure that Tomoyo-chan will let me leave as soon as it suits you, Kuro-sama," he said, "after all, the true purpose with this job was to keep me occupied when you're at work, right?"

Of course he knew that, and of course Kurogane knew that he knew.

"Don't you mind that?" he asked in the same moment as the light turned green and he swung the car left into the street along which Tomoyo's company lie.

Fay shrugged.

"I wouldn't have had anything to do when Kuro-sama is at work anyway," he said, "and I don't mind spending the day with such a cute girl as your Tomoyo-chan…"

Kurogane snorted. He himself would have hated to spend the day _anywhere at_ _all_ if it was only because someone else wanted to keep him out of the way.

"I really don't get you," he said settled, "how can you be so indifferent to your own life?"

He stopped in front of the huge building, white, painfully familiar building. It had already been two years but it hadn't changed at all since then.

Fay turned towards him and flashed him an even brighter smile than usual.

"It's not like that," he said, "I'm really glad that Kuro-sama lets me stay by him. He even cares enough to ask me about how I feel."

The black haired man swallowed down the frustration building up inside him. Most of all he wanted to grip the other man by the shoulders, give him a good shake and ask him what the hell it was that had made him become like this.

Instead he turned away.

"You better get inside," he said, "Tomoyo is waiting for you and I'm already too late for work."

"Ah," Fay opened the door and stepped out, "later then, Kuro-chan. There is a lunch box in your bag, I hope you like it."

He waved a little before disappearing through the doors.

Different questions haunted Kurogane on his way to the police office. He was quite sure that he was good at reading people, but it was something with Fay's irrational ways that made him almost impossible to construe. And he couldn't help that some of the contempt he had felt towards the man was now turned towards whoever it was that had forged him into this freaking porcelain doll he now was. He wondered slightly if Fay used his apartment as a hiding place or if he simply didn't now where else to go. Would he ever come to trust Kurogane enough to let him know what the hell was going on, or was he simply going to stay put, waiting for fate to catch up on him? Probably the last alternative since that was what he had been doing in the cellars as Kurogane found him.

He hadn't even reached his desk before one of his colleagues told him that Yuuko wanted to speak to him, immediately. Promising that he would turn and leave if it was only about the fifteen minutes absence, he put down his stuff by the desk, adding to his mental note that he wouldn't have to waste money on whatever mediocre food the staff café was offering that day.

His boss sat comfortably leaned backward, as confident as if her cream coloured office chair had been a throne, a lazy smile on her lips and the ever presenting pipe in her left hand.

"Good morning, Kurogane-kun," she greeted him cheerfully; "since you're not often coming too late I assume that something delayed you?"

He glared at her.

"Is that all?" he asked irritated, "I have better things to do than playing your bloody games…"

The raven haired woman sighed theatrical.

"My, my, Kurogane-kun, you really have no faith in me at all… I just wanted to ask you what you which conclusions you have made during those 'private investigations' of yours…"

He sank down in the chair opposite his boss.

"Not much," he admitted, "I could as well try to get information out of a gold fish, only that the fish wouldn't smile at me like a damn idiot all the time. Can I assume that you had a good reason to send me those papers?"

Yuuko took a long drag from the pipe and let the smoke slowly ooze out between her thin lips.

"Of course," she said, "you really didn't doubt that, did you?"

"I guess not, and of course you won't tell me why this time either…" he clenched his teeth, "you know I hate it when you play with me, Yuuko, and this time you even involved Tomoyo, if something happens to her…"

"Nothing will happen to Tomoyo-chan because of this," Yuuko cut him of abruptly, "however, you need to answer one of my questions before I can tell you anything more."

Kurogane frowned; this woman really had double standards.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," Yuuko smiled playfully at him, "if you thought you could save him, would you try?"

He started at her for a moment.

"I don't know," he confessed, "I haven't even got a fuckin' clue about who the hell he actually is!"

"Just that he isn't really what you first thought he was."

"Yeah, something like that," damn he hated it when she read his thoughts.

"Well, that must count as something, I guess," Yuuko said, "I'll set someone else to take care of your duties, Kurogane. There is a list of numbers you ought to call on your desk, please take care of it at once and I'll forget about those fifteen minutes."

"Don't forget to think about an answer for my question," she called after him as he stepped out of the room.

With "a list of numbers" Yuuko had meant a smaller telephone directory, Kurogane found out as he sat down at his desk. And it contained everything from Norwegian police men and hospital personnel to people in authority and inhabitants of the village Fay had, at least theoretically, been born in. What more was, they were all useless… Most of those he talked to didn't remember anything at all and the villagers were all passed eighty and lightly senile. By lunch he had come to the conclusion that the idea wasn't that he should come to realize something by talking to these people but by finding something like a main thread in everything. Once more he wondered what, exactly, Yuuko knew about the whole thing. He did have some suspicions regarding the woman, even if he had never been able to prove them, and now again it was pretty clear that she knew way too much being the person she pretended to be and that her true interests in fact lay somewhere outside of common police work.

After lunch, which turned out to be freshly made pie with ham and cheese (when had the man had time to make _that_?), he continued to check off the numbers. However, as there were only some twenty-thirty left he felt the frustration once more threatening his common sense. He stood, took his jacket and threw the list in the paper bin; after all, he was a man of action, not a bloody telephonist. Filled up with newly achieved resolution he walked out of the office to get his car, it was time to pick up Fay…


	8. So let in the light

Deserted pavements bathed in dim glow from the few streetlights that the city management had cared to put up in the park, a cold luminosity scarcely helped at all by a hollow looking moon. He was on his way back now, at least feeling somewhat refreshed by the chilly night air. It seemed like autumn was slowly approaching.

Physical training was something that always seemed to help Kurogane clear his thoughts and after dinner he had told Fay he was going out jogging for a while, since the blonde refused to let him help in the kitchen anyway… Fay had just smiled and told him to have fun, smiling a plastic smile and humming softly as he put the plates back on the shelf.

He had ran trough the park in higher speed than usual, a fruitless attempt to make himself stop thinking about anything at all. Like meditation, when everything that counted was your own breathing. But after half an hour he gave up, it seemed like neither whiskey nor training could help him at this rate. There was only one singe chance for him to get back to normal, and that was solving a case that had begun before he was even born.

As he first got back to the apartment, he thought that it was empty. There weren't any sounds to be heard, no footsteps, no rattling from the kitchen, no greeting. For a few seconds he was sure that Fay had ran away, but decided that if he had, his shoes would most likely have been gone. The man might be acting like a reckless idiot, but two run away in early autumn without outdoor clothes was more then reckless…

The door to the guestroom was open and as he looked inside he saw the thin man sitting at the end of the bed, clenching his knees as if he was trying to make himself as little as possible. His face was turned towards the window making it impossible for Kurogane to see his features. As the other man took a step into the room, Fay turned around rapidly, the impossibly blue eyes filled with fear. His panic disappeared as soon as he saw who it was and instead a bright smile showed up in his face, however it fell out in contrast to his eyes, which were swollen and red from crying.

"Kuro-sama," he greeted him softly, "I didn't hear you coming back…"

As if the tears in the other mans eyes had put a strange spell on him, Kurogane instantly walked over to the bed with clenched teeth. The seriousness in the black haired man's eyes seemed to make Fay uneasy and as Kurogane raised his right hand, the blonde flinched back as if he expected a slap.

Instead, Kurogane took hold of his chin and turned his face upwards.

"You were crying," he stated.

Fay tried to turn away from him.

"No, I wasn't, it's just the washing-up liquid, it makes my eyes tear."

The taller man frowned, released him and turned away to look out trough the window. It was all still out there, only an old cat made its way across the car park.

"Like hell," he said, "you were crying and it's no point in denying. Damn, I don't even know _why_ you're denying it!"

"I don't want Kuro-sama to see me cry," Fay said quietly behind him, "he shouldn't have to worry about me. I ought to leave at once because I will only make him unhappy if I stay."

"Maybe," he turned back and placed his hand on the side of the other man's face again, "but that is my decision to make."

Fay inhaled in shock as Kurogane closed the space between them and places his lips over his. But as soon as the first surprise had passed, he raised a hand to clench in the larger man's t-shirt, kissing him back open-mouthed.

It was a long kiss and, Kurogane had to admit, probably the best one of his life. Fay was apparently a skilled kisser and his lips and tongue were velvety soft. As he drew back for air he saw that the blonde had dropped his idiotic doll-smile and instead new tears had gathered in his eyes.

"This is no good, Kuro-sama," he whispered, "we ought to stop this. We ought to stop this right now…"

"Tell me to stop and I will," the other man answered shortly, but when no response came, he closed the distance again.

Afterwards Kurogane was unsure about how long the kissing had gone on, because it felt like ages. And somehow they both ended up on top of the bed, Fay on his back and Kurogane on top, leaning on one elbow so that he wouldn't crush the smaller man with his weight. Their mouths were still locked together in frantic kissing while each of them tried to get the other one rid of his clothes. Half way during the undressing process, Kurogane halted, trying to draw back.

"I'll need to get something," he forced himself to say, not at all wanting to let go of the slim body underneath his own.

"In the drawer," Fay panted, "by the bed. Tomoyo-chan seems to think about everything."

Not sure if he should be irritated or thankful about this, Kurogane reached over, opened the drawer and found the bottle awaiting there. Odd as it might be, he hadn't even looked inside that drawer before. _Which she knew that you wouldn't do_…

He turned his attention back to Fay again. The tears were all gone now and replaced by heath and desire, even if he could still see the sadness lurking behind. At least it was an honest look and the brief smile on his lips was almost genuine.

"Last chance," Kurogane told him as he spilled some of the bottle's content over his fingers, "if you're going to tell me to stop, do it now."

Fay shook his head slowly.

"It's so unwise," he said, "so very unwise, but Kuro-sama feels so good and I don't want him to stop this now."

"Fine," Kurogane said shortly, spilling some lube in Fay's hand as well before putting the bottle away, "I might hurt you now, though."

The blonde gave a little gasp as the first finger slid inside him but since he didn't seem to be in any actual pain, Kurogane didn't wait long until he added the next finger, moving and bending them carefully sometimes before adding the third and last. Fay moaned loudly by now, reaching up the hand in which he had the rest of the lubricant to smear it out on the other man's cock. As soon as he was done, Kurogane drew out his fingers, ignoring the dissatisfied little sound this granted him.

"Ready?" he asked, and as Fay nodded breathlessly, he lowered himself down at him.

It was a kind of lovemaking unlike everything else Kurogane had ever experienced before. Fay was clinging to him as if it was the only lifeline he had left, his fingers clawing his back so hard it hurt while whispering different versions of his name like a mantra. It was all bittersweet despair, sweaty, rough and very, very honest. And, Kurogane realized, not unpleasant at all.

Fay came first, spilling himself over Kurogane's hand while moaning some random nickname, and only couple of thrusts later, Kurogane followed him. They lay still for a few moments, exhausted by the intensity of it all, before Kurogane rolled of, afraid to hurt the delicate man. Fay turned to face him, smiling softly and almost happily.

"Thank you," he said, "thank you for caring so much about me, for letting me live here, for not hating me…"

Kurogane frowned, put his arms around the blonde's thin waist and pulled him closer.

"You're such an idiot," he said, "such a stupid, annoying and dishonest idiot."

Fay snuggled up to him.

"I know that," he said, "yet Kuro-sama is so sweet to me."

The black haired man snorted.

"I'm not sweet," he said, lazily moving his hand trough the other man's messy hair, "and you better get to sleep now, Tomoyo will expect you to come in time tomorrow."

And Yuuko would expect him to, he added for himself. With a little luck the witch would soon decide to share with him some more of that confidential information she had, even if that meant just another freaking game. He looked down at the pale man he held in his arms. His eyes were closed now and his breathing was quickly slowing down to an easy, steady pace. He was even more beautiful like this, Kurogane thought, without fake smiles and nervous giggles.

Somewhere deep inside he could hear the words Yuuko had spoken earlier that day; "If you thought that you could save him, would you try?"

And somehow, he thought that he had had the answer for that question all the time…


	9. And the people in our lives

**Sleepwalker Part 8:**

One morning came; soon followed by a next one, and a next, and suddenly Kurogane found that he had lost count of how many days had passed since Fay had moved into his apartment. Maybe because it all felt almost dreamlike, like something that wasn't supposed to happen in reality, something too absurd to be allowed if the world was still sane.

His investigations went on, but it was almost as if everything was cloaked beneath a mist of mysteries that he couldn't yet see trough, and he sensed that there was something that he missed.

Fay had, by some unspoken agreement, started spending the night in Kurogane's room and the guestroom was once more deserted. However, this didn't mean that it was any easier to get anything useful out of him, at least not anything else than good sex and delicious food…

If Kurogane tried to confront him, he would either make a joke out of it or close up inside himself. He got tired one evening, after an extraordinary trying day in which Yuuko had sent him away to talk to a woman who called herself "Crime Psychologist" and then talked in hours about disconnecting "Risei"s and "Kanjou"s. As Fay once more dodged his attempts to start a descent conversation he had simply grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against a wall, red eyes burning with anger and frustration.

But what he had seen in the blonde's eyes had been fear, mixed up with a resignation so total that it had made him drop him and step back, almost shocked, before putting his arms around his waist instead, holding him tight and trying not to hear the relief in his sigh as he buried his face in Kurogane's shirt. Probably, he thought, Fay would never stop believing that it only was a matter of time before Kurogane got tired enough of his antics to hurt him. So he found himself accepting the fact that he couldn't force Fay to open up to him.

What he _didn't_ accept was Yuuko and her never ending games. Everything the woman said was important and yet worthless unless you could figure out what was between the lines. And he hated for making things so difficult, hated her for first connecting his own life to Fay's and then putting them both in danger with not telling him all she knew. Kurogane hated riddles; better speak simple, true and straight forward than making things more complicated than necessary. He was in the wrong company and he knew it.

Tomoyo seemed pleased enough, though. Only after two days she had told him that Fay was the best secretary she'd ever had; smart, charming and skilled in lots of different things. She seemed to be willing to give him the job permanent, should it be topical. And Fay had nothing adverse to say about his post, he and Tomoyo fit well together and he didn't object to run errands for her at all. And if this resolute you lady decided that she wanted someone to work for her, no one would ever dream about objecting even if the person in question hadn't even graduated from elementary school.

It was a little more than a week into the epoch of his life Kurogane subconsciously called the "Fay Era". He had just dropped the blonde off in front of Tomoyo's office and was now waiting for the traffic lights in the nearest corner to turn green. The clock at the instrument panel told him that he was only going to be a little more than five minutes late today, if the traffic was running in normal pace. Before Fay had moved in he had always been early to work, but the other man seemed to know numerous of different ways to get them delayed… The minute hand moved again, the light switched colour and he drew out at the larger street.

It hit him that this could have been a perfectly normal morning, in which the memories of blood, cold stone and an extremely dead body slowly faded away and were replaced by common things such as breakfast, autumn sun and hurrying to work. In this different light, it could almost be real and not a cheap, desperate game of lies, questions and survival.

He could have asked himself whether he thought that it could _be made_ real, but he didn't have the energy to think about it.

A dilemma with being late was the inevitable lack of parking slots and it took him at least two more minutes to find a backstreet where he could leave his car. Tomoyo would kill him if she knew he had left his birthday present in such a shabby place, but he didn't actually have much of a choice.

As he walked in trough the front door he almost collided with Watanuki for the second time in less than two weeks. This time it was mainly the youngsters fault, since he came rushing like an idiot out from the office.

"Sorry," he said breathlessly, "Yuuko sent me to get something from the post office before they manages to deliver it. Of course, _I_ shall be the one to delay their honest work… She told me I would probably run into you on the way out, there's a lady in her office who wants to meet you."

Kurogane felt half pissed off and half hopeful as he made his way over to Yuuko's office, taking the almost ritual way past his desk to leave jacket and lunch box, he was pretty sure it was fried chicken today. He had no idea what the witch was up to this time and he neither had any idea to whom this "lady" was. But the door to the room stood already half open as if telling him to hurry up; Yuuko loved metaphors, even in daily life.

His boss herself sat as usual casually leaned back in her chair and at the other side of the deck sat a middle aged woman, tall, blonde and quite good looking, with tasteful clothes and determined eyes.

As he entered the room, the woman stood and offered him her hand in greeting.

"Hello," she said, "I'm Johanna Andersen, nice to meet you!"

He recognized the name almost immediately even if it hadn't turned up very much since the report he had read that night for one and a half week ago.

"You led the research about the case with the disappeared child, am I right?" he asked as he shook hands with her.

"Exactly," she made a small grimace, "I spent two years of my life on that case and I was never able to solve it, I'll never forgive myself for that."

She sat down in the chair again and reached for the coffee cup in front of her, Watanuki must have bought it to her before rushing away.

"Now suddenly, Yuuko-san called me and said that you're investigating a murder in which the child mentioned in my report is considered the main suspect?"

Kurogane fought down an impulse of asking her if "considered the main suspect" was enough when talking about someone who sat in the cellar of the same house, had blood in his face and refused to tell what the hell he was doing there. Whatever kind of weird relationship he had with Fay didn't change the fact that he still wasn't convinced that he had killed that guy, he just hoped that the blonde had had a damn good reason for doing so…

"I trust that my boss has already familiarized you with the details about it?" he asked instead as he fetched himself a chair from the other side of the room.

"Absolutely," Yuuko smiled broadly and toasted him with her own cup, "I even told Miss Andersen about this 'special kind of investigation' you are doing."

"Of course you did," he growled, he could just hope that she hadn't been hinting on anything else to someone, since her smile had told him long ago that she knew more then she possibly _should_ do.

"Oh, yeah," the Norwegian woman seemed to be confused by this, "I heard that Mr Flourite is currently staying with you in your own apartment?"

Kurogane nodded, glaring at Yuuko sideways.

"I didn't want to lose track of him before I had this solved and over with," he said simply.

"And he agreed with this?"

The black haired man shrugged.

"He didn't have anywhere else to go… I was confused that he didn't object to it, as well, but actually that man seems to have neither a sense of logic nor a common sense."

"Really? From the people who met him before he left Norway I have heard that he appeared to be an intelligent and somewhat premature boy?" the woman finished her coffee and put it back at the tray.

"He is too damn intelligent for his own good, but he seems to enjoy acting like a complete idiot, but enough with this, why exactly are you here?"

"Well," Johanna sank back into the chair's back support, "I talked to Yuuko-san a little more than a week ago as she had found my number and wanted to ask me about my old reports. After this I felt like I had to make a last try to solve this case that has been haunting me for all these years. And I actually think that I have stumble upon something…."

Kurogane raised an eyebrow.

"What then?"

"Well… A lady in the same village as Mr Flourite and his foster parents lived in at the time I was in contact with them told me later, after they had left, that it had been yet another child living in that house, a girl. This girl was never in any registers at all. I started to contact colleagues in different parts of the world, sent photographs of the family and actually got some answers from people who thought that they might have seen them. One of them sent me a picture of this girl and as I faxed this to different Japanese police forces, you ought to have gotten it too?"

Yuuko nodded and received a deadly glare from Kurogane in return.

"I did get it," she said, "I let one of my most trusted men look for the girl but he didn't find her…"

"Perhaps he did never cross the line to the next district because there, this girl has been seen on a number of different supervision cameras."

"So then Watanuki…?" Kurogane turned to Yuuko.

"Is out to look for her," Yuuko had lit her pipe again and took a long drag from it, "that boy has a peculiar gift for stumbling over things…"

"I still don't get it," Kurogane frowned, "so this girl is supposed to be his what? Sister? Partner in crime?"

_Maybe even the actual murderer? _

This time it was Miss Andersen's turn to shrug.

"No idea," she said, "but…"

They where interrupted as a tall, dark haired youngster knocked at the door post.

"Watanuki called," he said shortly, "the girl is outside your apartment, Kurogane-san, and she says that Flourite is in trouble."


	10. If it don't end in Bloodshed dear

**Sleepwalker Part 9:**

Kurogane knew this was important as soon as Yuuko declared that she was coming along. The lazy woman almost never left the office if she didn't absolutely _have_ to. He had never really understood why she was always there when things got dangerous, but he had sometimes found her in the middle of places to which you didn't went if you didn't know how to take care of yourself. No one ever questioned this. Once there had been a new recruit in the staff, trying to tell her to step back during a drug raid, after this, that man had never spoken up to anyone at all.

They sat in his car; he, Miss Andersen, Yuuko and the young police who was friends with Watanuki. He drove too fast, but no one of the others said something. One of his older colleagues had once said that a good police knew when it was time to break the law, and this was something that Kurogane could agree with. He wasn't scared, at least he didn't think he was, but he definitely felt uneasy. Were these people that Fay feared about to catch up on him? If so, would they be direct enough to follow him into Tomoyo's office?

Actually, he would have preferred to go there at once, storming the office and dragging both Fay and Tomoyo out and away to somewhere safe. But that would be reckless and stupid, what if the danger lay in something completely different? And for all he know the girl and the blonde could be somewhere else right now, Tomoyo was not the kind of person to spend all day in an office building.

As they drove into the car park he saw Watanuki sitting at one of the stones in front of the entrance with a small, blonde girl by his side.

"Isn't she too young?" Doumeki uttered the same question as Kurogane had on his tongue.

"I thought so too," Miss Andersen said, "and I can't really explain it, but this girl has to be much older than she looks. She looks the same at all the pictures I have."

"Are you sure it's the same girl then?"

"It has to be!" the Norwegian woman stated, "It's impossible that anyone except twins could be so alike."

However, it didn't sound like she believed in her own words.

The girl appeared to be in her teens, cute with long hair and pretty looking clothes. As they got out of the car she turn around and looked at them with big eyes like if she wondered if they were friends or foes. Just like Fay, Kurogane thought, lost and scared. But she probably had at least a decent source of money, judging by the clothes which looked rather expensive. Still, she looked very tired and not too clean.

Watanuki glared at them as they stepped out of the car as if he wanted to tell them not to scare her.

"These are nice people," he told her softly as they came closer, "they won't hurt you or Fay, and you will tell them the same thing you told me, alright?"

The girl nodded, still not taking her eyes off them for a single moment.

"Doumeki-kun," Yuuko turned towards the laconic young man, "could you go buy some food for this young lady, I'm sure she's hungry. I'd send Watanuki-kun but he has _such_ a good hand with pretty girls."

Kurogane caught something in her voice and as he glanced over at the tall woman, he saw that her face and eyes, despite her light words, were serious. Doumeki saw it too, nodded and walked off without unnecessary words.

"So," Watanuki held one of the girl's hands between his own, "tell them…"

"Chii came here to look for Fay," the girl said quietly, apparently referring to herself in third person, "Fay left and told Chii to stay but Chii was worried."

"And you found him…" Watanuki spurred her patiently.

"Chii found Fay in a dark room, Fay was bloody and hungry and Chii got him clothes and food and water. Then all the people came when Chii was out," she looked mainly at Kurogane, "Chii has followed Fay since then, but Fay looked safe so Chii didn't think Fay needed her."

So this was it then? Kurogane almost gaped in surprise. This was why Fay had only had blood on his cheek, how he had survived in the cellar, why there was still a smell of blood down there…

And also, it was the answer he had expected from the beginning; he was guilty to the murder.

"Why did he kill him?" he asked fixing the girl with his crimson eyes, "Why did Fay kill that man?"

Chii looked at him, perplexed.

"Because it was a demon," she said, "Fay kills demons… Master taught him so…"

"A demon! What the hell does that means!?"

"Kurogane-san!" Watanuki glared at him with unexpected anger in those oddly mismatched eyes he had, "You really shouldn't be screaming at Chii-chan like that, she hasn't done anything wrong!"

"Technically," Kurogane growled, "she has hided a murderer…"

"That doesn't matter, she helped a friend, which I thought that _you_ were trying to do too!"

That boy was too smart for his own good sometimes…

"Alright," Kurogane frowned, "when you called, you said he was in trouble?"

Chii suddenly stood, walked over to him and looked up at him with eyes much older than her childish looks.

"Are Kurogane-san Fay's friend?" she asked gravely.

"Well," he clenched his teeth, "yeah… Fay is… my friend. Please tell me why he's in trouble."

Both Yuuko and Watanuki smiled briefly at this. Miss Andersen seemed to be fighting with some inner demons, probably she saw herself guilty for not taking away Fay from his foster parents when he was a baby.

"Fay didn't want to kill demons anymore," Chii explained slowly," that's why Fay ran away. But Fay has to kill them, that's what master said. This morning, Chii saw a demon girl and Chii don't want Fay to have to kill her."

"Chii," Yuuko suddenly decided to invite herself to the discussion, "why do you think that he would meet this demon girl?"

Chii bit her lip.

"Because the demon girl followed the black haired girl who Fay met with Kurogane-san."

For the first time ever, Kurogane saw Yuuko flinch. Like in slow-motion the tall, beautiful woman raised herself from the stone she had sat down on and looked straight at Kurogane. The laid-back sarcasm was gone from her eyes and replaced with something that the black haired man couldn't name.

"Kurogane," she said slowly, "I've made a terrible mistake."

In the same moment Kurogane's cell phone started to ring, and as he looked at the display he saw Tomoyo's name flash in red. Suddenly the fear came, making his mouth dry and he prepared himself for the worst as he pushed the answer bottom at the cell, quite sure he didn't really want to know what he was about to find out.

At first, it was impossible to tell what the girl tried to say. She cried and every word turned to desperate sobs. Kurogane was already running. His car was only a few metres away but it felt too long. Miss Andersen tried to follow him, but Yuuko held her back.

"Yo… you ha… have to c… come here," Tomoyo's normally so cheerful voice was muffled and hoarse as if she had been screaming.

"I'm already on my way, Tomoyo-san," he told her in what he hoped was a calming voice, how could he calm someone when he himself was more upset than he had ever been before? "I'll be there soon, take yourself out at the street, if you can, and meet me there."

The sobbing continued but he could tell that the girl was moving, probably walking towards the entrance as he had told her to. And as he stopped abruptly in front of the huge building she was already standing outside.

She looked like something out of a horror movie. The hair hanged in tests around her pale face, redden by crying and she had blood sprayed all over her blue dress. People stayed, stared and screamed as they saw her and she didn't even seem to take notice. The other persons working in the building were also standing out at the street, even if none of them were covered in blood. They looked shocked, all of them, like a herd of sheep with a wolf among them.

"Oh, Kurogane-san," Tomoyo jumped him as soon as he was out of the car, crying hysterically, "she- she is dead and I think he is too, and there is blood everywhere!"

"Calm down, Tomoyo-san, please," he tried to free himself from the girl as carefully as possible. "There will be other police men here soon, stay here and wait for them."

He pushed her away and held her steady, trying to meet her eyes.

"Where, Tomoyo?"

"My office," she whispered, her eyes terrified and misted by shock.

Tomoyo's office was on the second floor, he remembered how to get there without having to stop to think. He ignored the elevator and ran up the stairs, taking three steps at once. He came up in a big room, full of desks, computers and copy machines. It was easy to see that the people working here had fled; papers and pens were thrown at the floor, right where they had stood. Tomoyo's personal office was a big room with walls made of panorama glass, like a crystal castle at the end of the hall. The glass walls were red, blood still running down, making patterns at the once clean surface.

He walked towards it, feeling each heart beat like a hammer in his chest. Normally he would have drawn his gun by now. But he knew that he wouldn't need it.

A girl lay in the door to the glass room, she was young and cute and very dead. Kurogane knew her, had met her with Tomoyo many times, a cheerful, sweet girl who always smiled and talked to each and everyone. She had gotten her throat cut, by a letter knife; it was now buried deep within her heart. He took a deep breath and stepped over her, into the room.

Fay lay on the floor, leaned back against the back wall, also he bathing in blood. He had cut his wrists; a pack of razor blades normally used for opening letters, was placed in the red pool besides him. As Kurogane entered the room he lifted his head slowly, looking at him with dazed eyes.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, "I'm so sorry, Kuro-sama."

Kurogane had seen injuries before, he knew very well how much blood a man could lose and survive. Fay had gone past that limit already litres ago, actually Kurogane was surprised that he was still alive. A voice within him, a voice he tried to fight down, told him that Fay had been waiting for him to come.

He kneeled besides him, ignoring the blood that wet his pants, and carefully put his arms around this stranger that had invaded his life less than two weeks ago, feeling a strange despair filling him from inside.

"It's not you who ought to be sorry," he whispered into the blonde hair, ironically, it was completely free from blood stains, "I still don't know what the hell happened to you, not really, but I know this isn't something you did by your own choice. I'm sorry, sorry I couldn't make it in time."

Fay looked up at him with a brief and very real smile on his now almost blue lips.

"It's alright," he said, "thanks for coming; I think I needed you here."

Kurogane felt the thin body relax in his arms and only seconds later it got limp, Fay's head fell over against his chest and the shaky breaths died away. Whatever he had meant to say didn't matter anymore, not in this life…

Yuuko and Doumeki found him there some minutes later still holding on to Fay's body. As he looked up at them, his eyes were dry.

--------------


	11. It's probably not love

**Epilogue:**

Emily knew that she was staring but she just couldn't help it.

"That… was it?"

"Pretty much, yeah, it was," the black haired man said shortly as he stood and picked up his jacket.

"But that was in Japan, right?" Emily said. "Why are you here?"

He shrugged.

"He said he wanted to go back so I arranged it, and besides I'm still trying to hunt those bastards down."

"Did you never find them?"

"No," he started to turn away, "as Fay died, or trace died as well."

"But," Emily frowned, "what about the girl, Chii?"

"That stupid simpleton Watanuki started to argue with some people outside the office as soon as they got there, he didn't thought she would run away, but she did."

"What will you do," Emily stood too, "if you find them?"

Kurogane turned towards them again and smiled humourlessly.

"Kill them," he said.

"But you are forbidden to kill anymore, aren't you?"

"I was," he began to walk away, "as soon as I understood that that bitch knew about that 'demon killing' thing, knew that we should have gone to the office right away, that became meaningless to me."

He was gone within a minute.

Alice forgot about it all but Emily didn't. She continued to visit Fay's grave at least once a month during the next two years. She met Kurogane once, she had been afraid he would become angry if he found out, but he didn't. He nodded to her and she waved to him. They didn't say anything, that wasn't needed.

She left the town to start college and only some month later, the rest of her family also moved. Since she didn't have any particular reason to return to her home town it took almost three years until she got back to celebrate a childhood friend's wedding.

Although it had been so long, she remembered the way to the grave, but she would have missed it still if she hadn't caught a glimpse of one of the glass animals lying overturned underneath a carpet of weeds.

Her friends found her there, in front of a grave that hadn't been looked after for at least two years.

Owari

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_How did this start? Well, I guess it started as a really angsty plot-bunny. I had a picture of Fay hiding in that cellar, of Kurogane finding him, taking him home and then, as he started to become attached to him, everything would end angsty and bloody and way too fast. A brief view of something that could have become a great love story but never reached…Yes, Ohkawa is my goddess._

_There are still questions left, I know that, but the story about Kurogane and Fay in this world was at its end. I have plans to write down the rest as a DouWata sequel, since I don't think that Yuuko will give up that easily_

_Anyway, thanks to all of you who have read this fic, I've received so many nice comments, both here and at LJ, and I'm very happy about that!_

_Until next time!_

_//Wysteria_


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